Coliform bacteria found in 80% of water samples in Kozhikode

Schools, hotels, private and government institutions included in survey

Health hazard: In many places, Kerala Water Authority’s pipes are laid next to drains. There is a possibility of drinking water getting mixed with the sewage.

Around 80% of water samples collected from various parts of Kozhikode city were found to have coliform bacteria, indicating the possibility of faecal contamination that could lead to disease outbreaks if the water is not boiled before use. A few of the samples were found to have E-coli bacteria too.

This was revealed in a survey taken up by the health section of the civic body between 2018 and 2019, R.S. Gopakumar, health officer, told The Hindu on Tuesday.

The presence of coliform bacteria indicates that disease-causing organisms could be found in the water system and E-coli is a sub-group of faecal coliform. As many as 723 water samples were randomly collected from open wells, borewells or water taps. Health inspectors were asked to cover schools, anganwadis, hotels and restaurants, juice parlours, and private and government institutions across the city. They were subjected to bacteriological and chemical analysis at the Centre for Water Resource Development and Management, he said. There are 75 wards within the city corporation limits.

Dr. Gopakumar said that the presence of the bacteria was found to be higher during the monsoon as the groundwater table would see a rise at that time. “This leads to spreading of the bacteria across the water source. In summer, when the water table depletes, their numbers are less,” he said. The official claimed that one of the main reasons for contamination was the lack of efforts to clean water tanks frequently. The location of septic tanks close to open or borewells and drinking water pipes laid next to drainage too were other reasons, he said.

Sources in the corporation said that some samples collected from water sources on the banks of the Conolly Canal were highly polluted. Now, the officials were sorting out area-wise figures to see which ward had the highest presence of the bacteria. The corporation had also collected samples of ice, meat and fish samples for checking and the process to collect the data was on, they said.

Dr. Gopakumar said that there was a plan to collate the findings of the survey in the form of a scientific research paper, which could be published later.